Current Courses

Greek/Latin Reading Group

This reading group is meant for students who wish to improve their proficiency in reading philosophical ancient Greek/Latin or to prepare for the Greek/Latin language exam in the philosophy department. Reasonably good reading skills are required for active participation. However, those who are less ...

French Language Group

The purpose of this group is to assist students in improving their reading skills, enriching their vocabulary, and refreshing their knowledge of French grammar in order to prepare for the French language exam required by the philosophy department. Texts are chosen mainly from 17th-century thinkers (...

German Reading Group

This group is devoted to the translation and discussion of philosophical texts in German. The course is suitable for students with reasonably good reading skills who wish to improve their proficiency in reading philosophical German, or to prepare for the German language exam in the philosophy depart...

Ancient Greek, Beginner Language Study

This course will introduce the grammar and syntax of the Ancient Greek language. Beginners will encounter Greek through sentences selected from Ancient Greek authors, alongside a systematic introduction of grammatical principles. The aim will be to acquire an essential foundation of vocabulary and g...

Modern Deductive Logic

The purpose of this course is to provide students with knowledge and understanding of the basic concepts of modern deductive logic, both in syntax and semantics. We start with sentential logic and discuss methods of constructing truth tables, truth trees, and derivations (for both the systems of SD ...

Introductory Proseminar

Proseminar is an introductory course for first-year graduate students; and is designed to help new students make the transition to graduate study at the Philosophy department. To this end, we intersperse discussions from department faculty with presentation of resources and activities available for ...

Spanish Reading Group

This group is devoted to the translation and discussion of philosophical texts in Spanish. The course is suitable for students with reasonably good reading skills who wish to improve their proficiency in reading philosophical works originally written in Spanish, or who need to prepare for the Spanis...

Gender and Domination

Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit I

This is the first part of a year-long course. On the reading of Hegel proposed in this course, the Phenomenology seeks to demonstrate that Spirit, Geist, is the necessary social-historical foundation for a non-self-defeating form of life. Demonstrating this to be the case involves overcoming the ...

Heidegger's Being and Time

Martin Heidegger is without doubt the most important, influential and infamous philosopher in the 20th Century Continental tradition. Being and Time is his magnum opus. The purpose of this course is to get a grip on what Heidegger calls his `existential analytic? through a series of lectures and rea...

The Basic Works of Freud

This course covers the major concepts in Freud, stressing their revolutionary nature. Topics include trauma, defense, wishes, dreams, unconscious processes, infantile sexuality, perversion, narcissism, identification, life and death drives, anxiety, disavowal, and ego-splitting.

The Basic Problems of Phenomenology

This course provides an introduction to the project of classical phenomenology as it is found in the writings of Husserl and Heidegger. Topics include expression and meaning, consciousness and Dasein, time and temporality, perception and intentionality, and evidence and truth.

Levinas and ...

This lecture course will attempt to introduce, explain and, to some extent, defend Levinas work via his complex relations to a series of other philosophers. Firstly, through those who most influenced him, positively and negatively: Husserl, Hegel and Heidegger. Secondly, through some of those reade...

Foucault: Subjectivity, Rationality, Critique

This seminar is a general introduction to Foucault?s thought. Our guiding thread will be the emergence and development of his views about subjectivity, personhood and rationality over the course of his career, from the first publications in the early 1950s, through what are generally conceived as it...

Action and Non-Action

TBA

Sovereignty in Hobbes & Beyond

The course explores Hobbes' theory of sovereignty, focusing on the relation between its concept of humanity, law and the sovereign's ultimate power to enforce and resolve the war of all against all. Starting with a reading of Hobbes' Leviathan, the course then shifts to the critiques of Hobbes by Ka...

Plato's Phaedrus

This course will focus on a close reading of Plato?s Phaedrus, with the themes of writing and rhapsody in mind. Is philosophy more suited to one than the other? Is writing?whatever ?writing? may entail?in some way necessary to the pursuit of truth? Socrates? view in Plato?s Phaedrus is that writing ...

Prospectus Seminar

The course is designed to take students through the various steps involved in constructing a plan of research in order to write a PhD dissertation. By the completion of the course, all students will be expected to have produced an acceptable dissertation prospectus. This course is required for all P...

Philosophy of Perception

This seminar will focus on contemporary debates in the philosophy of perception. We will critically examine recent work on the following questions: Does language shape perception? Can the qualitative character of perceptual experience be adequately put into words (or, alternately, communicated throu...

Black Feminist Survival

What grounds the ethical and political imperative to survive? What is the cost of survival under captivity? How can we think survival beyond self-preservation? Is a commitment to the flourishing of children and future generations at odds with Queer and Trans critiques of reproductive futurity? What ...